there is no correlation there as far as any type of termination of the cia's detention interrogation program and that increase in strikes. now, i will say that if you look out over the last four years what happened in a number of places such as yemen and other areas where there was, in fact, a growth of al qaeda, quite unfortunately, and so what we were trying to do in this administration is to take every measure possible to protect the lives of american citizens whether it be abroad or in the united states. as well as a maturation of capabilities and inside into those intelligence plots as a result of the investment that was made in the previous administration that allowed us in this administration to take appropriate actions. >> well, let's talk further about the targeted killings. when the targeted killings began several years ago, the first order of effect was the elimination of the senior operational leadership of al qaeda, of many of the leaders, many of the core leaders. obviously, that is a critical priority. we have heard both former cia director michael hayden in an interview on cn
